for most of the people left with no smartphones, $199 is too much. even for me its too much. only way i justify buying a new phone for $199 is proceeds from sales of the old phone

One of the best things about owning an iPhone is the resale value. After buying my first iPhone in 2008, I always get the newest one and never have to pay for the phone itself. The previous one is always worth at least $200. In fact, I often make money by getting a new iPhone!

Of course, the phone service costs money but since I am happy with my provider and don't ever plan to be without cell phone service, this works out well for always having a nice new phone without paying extra money on top of the service itself.

I haven't seen any official numbers but take a look in the forums here, there are a TON of ex iPhone users with Android devices now. I'm one of them, and I know PLENTY in person that have done the same. It's not a knock on iOS(though it needs some serious revision) but it's further proof that the times are changing, and that people want something different, and are willing to give Android a try.

Based on Verizon's official numbers today, for every one person that does what you did, there must be two going in the opposite direction and switching from Android (or another OS) to iOS...

I haven't seen any official numbers but take a look in the forums here, there are a TON of ex iPhone users with Android devices now. I'm one of them, and I know PLENTY in person that have done the same. It's not a knock on iOS(though it needs some serious revision) but it's further proof that the times are changing, and that people want something different, and are willing to give Android a try.

i played with my father in law's S3 a few days ago, and i don't plan to trade my iphone for it.

No, I don't think so. You can get some great deals on the last generation iPhones, so why wouldn't they sell well? Some people want an iPhone, but don't want any up-front costs. So I wouldn't say it's that surprising at all.

I wouldn't get too excited, it stands to reason that the stats lean in Apple's favour when they just released a new device. Things will settle out quick enough. I'm an Apple guy, but Android and Samsung are making it very tough on Apple.

But Apple's share of the total this quarter is up over the same quarter last year. I'm not seeing where Android and Samsung are hurting them in the US.

__________________"Terrorism is horrible and must be stopped. All of us must do everything we can do to stop this craziness. These people shouldn't exist. They should be eliminated."— Tim Cook 

i played with my father in law's S3 a few days ago, and i don't plan to trade my iphone for it.

lots of little annoyances on it

Prior to getting my iPhone 5, I played with several Android phones. I liked some things like the larger screen sizes, but the apps themselves were not stellar. I still felt like I was getting a better overall experience with an iPhone.

I haven't seen any official numbers but take a look in the forums here, there are a TON of ex iPhone users with Android devices now. I'm one of them, and I know PLENTY in person that have done the same. It's not a knock on iOS(though it needs some serious revision) but it's further proof that the times are changing, and that people want something different, and are willing to give Android a try.

You're giving anecdotal evidence and I'm referring to real statistics. Tech forums are not very indicative of reality. And macrumors in particular is flooded with fandroids and Apple haters who would never consider the iPhone so I would take most "I switched from iPhone to Android and couldn't be happier!" posts with a grain of salt. Not saying that's you though.

The proof is in the pudding. Verizon was a huge Android seller. Now nearly two thirds of their activations are iPhones. The picture can't get much more clearer than that.

This isn't that surprising to me. Most people still want a cheap phone. They don't want a $200-$400 subsidized phone. They want a $50 phone or a free phone. I suppose they'll pay up to $99.

Now that the name iPhone has all of these brackets, there's almost no need to go with one of the other, cheaper guys, because there are no other, cheaper guys. Apple has never done this before -- become a name of high quality and offer insanely cheap price points, but there you have it.

Again, most people (not the geeky MacRumors crowd) want a touch screen phone so they can use Facebook. They don't care what the OS is, but they know the name iPhone better than they know the millions of Android varieties.

Prior to getting my iPhone 5, I played with several Android phones. I liked some things like the larger screen sizes, but the apps themselves were not stellar. I still felt like I was getting a better overall experience with an iPhone.

i was playing with google maps on the S3 and i had to walk to the window for it to work. the iphone uses wifi/LTE towers to get location. google maps on the S3 seems to want the GPS satellites.

kind of funny. it didn't work so i put it on the table to eat lunch. the whole time it had the message that it was trying to get location or get GPS signal or something. after i ate i walked up to the window and it got the location right away

i set up an ESPN widget for my FIL to track soccer. i added his teams and the thing still displayed the NFL scores. what was the point of widgets again?

Very positive overall, but isn't it a little bit surprising that the iPhone 5 only accounted for around half of iPhone sales?

Not surprising to me at all. The iPhone 5 will be the first iPhone that is less popular than the model that preceded it! Why?

1) Elimination of the 30-pin dock connector.
2) Relatively thin aluminum case with an anodized finish that chips/scuffs too easily.
3) A Maps app that, while adding turn-by-turn, sucks in just about every other regard.

These numbers might be good but still shows many lost opportunities by not providing different size phones(please see sammy's figure) and also proving that apple is selling tons right now because of their brand recognition and not because device is awesome.

Stop living in the past glory apple. You haven't done crab since iphone 4 came out.